


trainwreck.

by orphan_account



Category: NCIS
Genre: F/M, Team Bonding, girl talk
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-10
Updated: 2019-01-10
Packaged: 2019-10-07 16:58:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,015
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17369846
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Nick can't like Ellie.She knows he loves her, and it's just too bad; because he deserves better. Post 16x11/Ellie-centric.





	trainwreck.

"That cannot be true! No. No way, ever!"

 

Jack watched Ellie from across the booth at her favorite dive bar, where she had cocooned herself inside her heavy jacket and was sipping from her drink with a focused intensity through her swirly flamingo straw. How Jack had found herself in this situation, with Ellie glaring at her like a petulant child was beyond even her investigative prowess. Ellie had passed drunk several cocktails ago, when she had emptied the coins in her wallet into the jukebox's oldies catalog and only circled back around to Jack after trying unsuccessfully to scan her grocery rewards card into the coin slot.

 

From what Jack could see, Ellie Bishop had crossed the border into strictly Spring Break territory.

 

While she wouldn't deny the blonde was the very picture of blackmail material, her cheeks apple-red as she swayed lightly to the music by herself, Jack couldn't ignore that Ellie was very much her responsibility now, which she definitely hadn't been expecting.

 

Ellie was so rarely this vulnerable, lacking so much in her usual inhibition that she didn't even seem to mind that her bangs had stuck to her damp mascara, or that the sleeve of her silk blouse had spent the better part of the past hour dipped in a rum and coke.

 

If Jack had only known alcohol cracked her open like eggs over a skillet, she would have invited Ellie out for a no-limits girls' night much, much sooner.

 

"I thought you couldn't get drunk.", the profiler observed dryly, grimacing to herself as Ellie fixed her with a puzzled look.

 

"I can't!", the younger agent protested, giggling despite herself. "And this is about you and not me! You're lying! You said Nick liked me!"

 

Ellie laughed, flicking the straw towards Jack. "He doesn't. Nope."

 

Jack's could feel the headache forming behind her own eyes out of sympathy for what Ellie would be waking up with the next morning.

 

"Okay, Ell. I was wrong.", she teased gently, as she reached across the table to pry to glass from Ellie's white-knuckled hands. "I think it's time for us to call it a night.", Jack said, signaling over Ellie's head to the barkeep to cut her off.

 

"What- but I? I love this place, Jack! We never come here anymore. I don't wanna leave yet."

 

"This is the first time we've ever been here.", she told Ellie. "But don't worry, my birthday's coming up. There's no way we won't have a real blowout then."

 

Ellie shook her head. "Which birthday? You're already old."

 

Jack sighed. It might have been damn close to last call, but she had a long, long night ahead. 

 

Ellie could apparently be quite a bit of dead weight when she wanted to be, leaned up against Jack in the parking lot. She protested like a teenager, and Jack couldn't stop herself from feeling strangely wistful as her mind drifted to thoughts of what might have been in another lifetime. Ellie wrapped her arms around Jack's shoulders and hung around her body, her fingertips unusually warm when they brushed up against Jack's cheek. 

 

It took some creative maneuvering, but Jack was relieved to finally get her car doors open. She helped Ellie, who seemed to understand well enough to go slack in her arms, into the passenger seat, fastening her seatbelt as her head lolled against the window. Her eyes were half-shut, her lips frozen into a slight grin that turned just the very corners of her mouth up. 

 

Perhaps, Jack wondered, as she steered them back towards the highway, Ellie's dreams were drifting to what waited for her in another life, too. 

 

 -

 

Ellie's brownstone loomed large before them, and Jack glanced over to her as she parked the car. Her eyes had snapped open, watery green in the streetlight glow, and despite the alcohols still on her breath, Jack felt her wiry muscles tense and her breathing hitch in the back of her throat, as though the entire weight of the day behind them had slammed into Ellie all at once. 

 

"Hey. I'll get the coffee started. Keys?", Jack asked, pleased that Ellie had lost her spirit of protest and quickly handed them over. Jack quickly cut the gas and let Ellie out, her own stomach clenching slightly as she watched her take unsteady steps up the stairs. 

 

“Uh-oh. I’m locked out.”, Ellie groaned as she saw Jack head up the walkway behind her. “I’ll call Nick. He has my other key-“ 

 

Jack shook her head, unable to keep a straight face as she filed that fact away in her mind. “No need. You know, I think this is a problem I can definitely fix.” 

 

Minus the shell-shocked look on her face and the awestruck whisper of “That’s magic.”, when Jack let them into the apartment, Ellie was sobering up almost disturbingly quickly. It wasn’t a bad thing- least of all not for her, but it meant Jack didn’t want to leave her alone to face those early-morning post-alcohol realizations on her own. 

 

She had drank her coffee obediently, and now sat on her sofa, knees pulled up to her chin and her eyes empty of their previous sparkle, huge pupils staring blankly at Jack as she crossed the threshold from the kitchen. 

 

“Ellie? Are you okay?”, she asked, trying to be as gentle as possible. Jack could still feel the buzz of electric liquor from her skin as she sank into the sofa beside her. 

 

“Nick doesn’t like me, you know. Even if he flirts with me and says- even if he says things and he- he cares. It’s just who he is. He’s just my partner”, Ellie said, her voice still slightly hoarse and thready. Still, Jack felt her heart drop a little at how much conviction she tried to put into it.

 

She mentally scolded herself for how she had handled their conversation- sure, she knew Ellie and Nick were both well aware of the office gossip about them, but she hadn’t known what a sore topic it clearly was. Especially after what had happened between them on the Christmas case- Jack was pretty sure both agents were dealing with a flood of unfamiliar emotions, and to make light of it, even in passing, didn’t just make her a bad psychologist, but a bad friend, too. 

 

“Hey- Ell, I’m sorry I brought it up. If you don’t want to talk about Nick, then we won’t, okay?” 

 

Ellie nodded, blinking as she registered the information. 

 

“He can’t- he shouldn’t love me. Or want to- do anything with me.”, she said after a long, heavy pause, her eyes filling with tears again. “I almost died and I still couldn’t tell him- all I thought about was- was how I couldn’t leave him alone. When Vicious was shooting at me... I didn’t want to die because I didn’t want to- hurt him.”

 

Jack sighed, nodding seriously to tell Ellie she completely understood. 

 

“He can’t keep doing this.”, Ellie’s wavering voice declared, punching her fist down into one of the sofa cushions. “He can’t keep showing up for me and expecting- that hes going to have enough.”

 

Jack squinted at Ellie, her profiler side suddenly overtaking the side that only wanted to be a shoulder for Ellie cry on. 

 

“What do you mean by that?” 

 

Ellie laughed harshly, her eyes glazing over with steel as she fixed her gaze to the picture frames that hung over her mantle. 

 

“Jake left. If Qasim were here- if I’d told him why Jake and I got divorced- it wouldn’t have mattered what I said to him. Who marries someone who wasn’t enough for someone else?”, she scoffed, shaking her hair out of her eyes. 

 

“Someday, I won’t be there for Nick. I’ll miss a shot or I won’t say the right thing- and he’ll know. I don’t-“, Ellie paused to swipe away at the errant tears that had leaked down her cheeks. “I’m not going to disappoint him until I have to. I don’t care if he thinks I’m a frigid bitch. I’m not going to hurt him.”

 

”Oh, Ell.”, Jack murmured, as Ellie’ head settled on her shoulder. 

 

“I’m so tired.”, she said. “I’m so tired, Jack.” 

 

Jack nodded, fording her head down to look directly into Ellie’s fading gaze. 

 

“I know. Ell- shhh, just let yourself rest.” 

 

-

 

It was Monday before Ellie had to see Nick again after the Boyd debacle, and her rather unfortunate Friday night rager, if getting so wasted that she had accidentally poured her heart out to the team’s psychologist could ever be considered in the same universe as a wild party. She had been one of the living dead for all of Saturday and barely left her bed, and had successfully managed to ignore his incessant texts all of Sunday.

 

Alcohol could wipe wipe away so many memories, even for someone with a photographic memory, but her mind refused to let the memory of Jack in her living room while she cried like a little girl go.

 

It figured, she deserved to suffer. 

 

Nick bounded across the carpet of the bullpen from the elevator, energetic as ever. She knew she had liked him from the moment he’d joined the team, though that pure attraction had hardened into something different as they had worked together more and more; something that made her heart flutter to see him, and she was smart enough not to let herself destroy. 

 

She loved him. 

 

He deserved better. 

 

“Yo, B!”, Nick called, practically screeching to a stop before her desk. 

 

“What’s with the radio silence? Did you do the unplug early this year?”, he asked. 

 

“I was sick. I had a bug.”

 

“Aw, babe.”, he teased. “You should’ve called me over. I make a mean chicken noodle soup.”

 

”Uh-huh.”

 

Nick cocked his head. “You sure you’re good, Bishop?”

 

He lowered his voice and added- “Seriously, Ellie, I’m so sorry about the whole thing with the text. I was being a dumbass-“ 

 

Ellie slammed the drawer of her desk shut and stood up from her seat. 

 

“Okay- don’t mention it. I seriously never want to hear about that entire thing ever again.”, she snapped. 

 

“Whoa- Bishop, easy. Fine. Sure. No harm, no foul, okay? Down, girl. ”, he told her, backing off towards his desk. Even though he still sounded like he was joking, Nick’s voice was punctuated with a clear concern. 

 

He was one step from asking what was going on, and she needed to go. Ellie turned on her heel and headed for the elevator, only to run into Jack on her way up. 

 

“Morning, Bishop, how are you feel-“ 

 

“I don’t want to talk about it.”, she seethed, stepping into the elevator. “Please, just leave me alone.” 

 

- 

 

Ellie was lucky, because no active case meant that Jimmy had reams of paperwork and no bodies in the morgue, which meant that she was welcome to sprawl out across the table from him with her laptop and a bag of chips between them, with no questions asked. 

 

Instead, Jimmy rabbled on amicably about the history of boats, and Victoria's school projects and whether or not he thought that dinosaurs could have had more interesting colors. Jack was probably telling Gibbs about her, and Nick was probably begging off to Kasie or Tim, or both, to bug the room and find out what was wrong, but all of them had thankfully kept their distance, even sending down one of the probies to dump a stack of folders off for her. 

 

"So...when are you going to tell me what's going on?", Jimmy asked, waving his hand in front of Ellie's face. "Not that I mind the company, but it's just weird- I mean, maybe not weird- just- a little odd. Though, if you like the vibe in here, I can ask Dr. Mallard if we can set up a work station over there-" 

 

Ellie paused mid-crunch, and held up her hands. "Oh, God. Jimmy."

 

She shook her head, and glanced up at him again as he took a handful of chips from the bag. "Don't take this the wrong way, but men are trash." 

 

He nodded along with her. "Right. Okay...is this a Kasie thing or should I go call Jack?" 

 

"See, this is exactly what I mean! Guys are always trying to pass their...issues off on us and-"

 

Suddenly, the doors of the morgue slid open, and Jimmy was relieved to see Torres stride through the glass, never happier to see his too-tight t-shirt than he had been in that moment. 

 

"Bishop."

 

Ellie winced at the mention of her name, and  Jimmy couldn't help but feel what must have been a pang of sympathy. 

 

"Yeah, do we have a case?", she asked, still not turning herself around to look at him. 

 

"No- but we need to have a talk." 

 

-

 

Jimmy and Kasie watched from the windows of Kasie's lab as Torres and Bishop strode up and down the hall outside the morgue. He reached for her shoulder, and she turned to slam her open palm against his chest. He glowered at her, and she almost looked like she would burst into tears at a moment's notice. He turned to stalk up the hallway in the opposite direction, only for her to call him back. 

 

Usually, Kasie was a fan of the soundproof glass that allowed her to play her music, but today, she wanted nothing more than to be a fly on the other side of the wall. She took some chips from the bag Jimmy offered, trying to follow along with World War Nick and Ellie as best as someone who was standing on top of a metal counter with another human being could. 

 

Nick had wrapped his hand around her upper arm, keeping her from squirming away from him. 

 

"Bishop- I...look, you said we had to trust each other and we can't keep going on like this. I can't...not tell you that I-", he puffed out a shaky breath. "Wow, this is actually kind of hard. It looks so much easier on TV." 

 

Ellie fixed him with a scathing gaze. "You think?" 

 

He licked his lips and dropped the grip he had on her, letting his arms hand by his sides. "I have feelings for you. I have for...a while now." 

 

"I know.", Ellie muttered. 

 

"So- you...what does that make us, then?", he asked, his voice a low, husky whisper. Ellie could feel the heat climb from the pit of her stomach to her cheeks, her palms growing sweaty in the pockets of  her jeans. 

 

"It- it makes us partners. It's not...Nick, it's not easy like you think it is. I'm not really a happy ending girl."

 

"I wasn't really thinking we'd get there that fast, but you said it first.", he quipped. 

 

In spite of herself, Ellie gave him a tired, tiny grin. "Nick...I can't let you waste your time on-"

 

"On you? Wait- you thought- Ellie. Ellie. You could never be a waste of anyone's time.", he gasped, his eyes wide. 

 

"You don't know that." 

 

An awkward, heavy pause hung between the two of them, brown eyes darting to search hazel underneath the harsh, fluorescent lights of the hall. Her hair was tousled and her cheeks had taken on a pale blush, her hands balled deep in tiny fists in her pockets. 

 

Nick had been in awe of Eleanor Bishop's utter perfection since the very first time he had seen her. 

 

"Hm. Yeah, guess I shouldn't make assumptions, right?" 

 

His voice was practically a whisper, as he closed the gap between them. Nick's lips met hers, a small shock vibrating through the both of them as she leaned into his kiss, surprising herself as she returned his passion with equal measure. His hand snaked up her back, pulling her closer still as she nearly melted into his arms, anchoring her to his solid shoulders when all she wanted was to collapse beside the fake plants on the end table beside them. 

 

Nick neatly broke the kiss, licking his lips and reveling in their new peach flavor. "Now I have some evidence...definitely worth it. Best time I've had all day, confirmed.", he said, burying his nose in her sweet-smelling blond locks. Ellie's arms were locked around his shoulders, her cheek resting on the side of his. 

 

He could hear her breathless giggle, as he tipped her face back up to meet his. 

 

"I take it you have feelings for me, Agent Bishop.", he murmured, making her eyes sparkle as she tried to avoid his gaze. 

 

"Something like that.", she forced the words she had hid from him for so long to the surface. "But- Nick, this isn't going to be easy." 

 

"Rule 345: The best never is.", he chuckled, relieved to notice the tension slowly seep out from her shoulders. 

 

"The rules definitely don't go up to the hundreds!", she groaned, playfully slapping his arm. 

 

"Oh, by the time I'm done here, they will.", Nick teased. 

 

"Torres! Bishop! Grab your gear! Dead marine in Alexandria!"

 

Gibbs' unmistakable voice echoed through the hallway, and the two of them suddenly broke apart as though lightning had struck them. Ellie's eyes widened to practically the size of saucers, and Nick's dumbfounded expression was much more deer in the headlights than federal agent in the back halls. 

 

"Come on, we don't have all day here.", he shouted again. 

 

"Right. right. Nick, let's go."

 

"Uh- yeah, we're coming, Gibbs. Grabbing our gear. Doing that.", Nick shouted back, causing Ellie's blush to deepen as she strode back up the hallway to the bullpen beside her partner. 

 

Their hands had remained intertwined, warm fingers brushing against each other even as they separated to grab their backpacks at their desks. 

 

"Ellie-", Nick called as they hustled to the elevator. 

 

"Yeah?" 

 

"It's gonna work.", he told her, without even a hint of doubt. 

 

"I know."

 

If McGee had noticed why both of his fellow agents were beaming as they boarded the elevator, he kept his mouth blessedly shut. 

 

**Author's Note:**

> @ NCIS Writers: I swear if Ellie DOESN'T like Nick back-
> 
> Idk. maybe I should have had more angst but I just had to give them a nice ending o k :)


End file.
